Chapter - 16

“Nope, nope, nope.” Yuki noped out of the mystery room.

Desperate, she dove into the first hiding place in sight: the crevasse between the wardrobe and the wall.

Yuki wanted nothing to do with whatever that room was.

Did she stumble on a forbidden occult ritual? Some nefarious voodoo black magic thing? No, it couldn’t be. There was no magic smell. She tried to wiggle deeper and realized she was stuck. She couldn’t go any further and dared not go back. From under the wardrobe, Ferdinand's crumpled message stared at her.

“Biscuit! Come here, cutie.” The witch called. Yuki froze, praying to whatever god or gods out there that Jenny wouldn’t find her.

“Biscuit?” The voice called again, uncertain. “Where did you go, boy?”

Footsteps closer, then further away.

“Biscuit?” Jenny asked one more time before heading back into the cult room.

Yuki waited a few more minutes. When Jenny didn’t leave, Yuki pushed with her front paws until she was free. She looked around, trying to find another place to hide.

Inside the wardrobe was risky; Jenny always kept her stuff organized. If Yuki hid there amid the clothes, the chances of discovery were high.

Where else?

The room had no restroom, and the furniture was sparse. An ideal hiding place would be near the door so she could flee once it was open, but the walls were bare, with nothing to hide behind or beneath.

In the end, Yuki huddled in the darkest corner beneath the bed. Not original, but it was all she had. The plan was to wait until Jenny tried to leave, then use that opportunity to run away.

Hours dragged on, and Jenny didn’t leave the cult room.

Yuki wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but the sunlight had turned orange, and the room gloomy. Her tired eyes worsened the boredom of the wait. She hadn’t tried to stay still after becoming a rabbit; it was hard and made her sleepy.

When the mystery door finally opened, Yuki jolted awake, sleep forgotten. She perked up and crept closer to where the bedroom exit was.

Jenny didn’t leave immediately; she walked here and there, near the room’s corners and places where a rabbit could hide. Yuki watched in trepidation as the feet approached the bed. Jenny kneeled and peeked under it. Her eyes locked with Yuki’s.

“There you are!”

Yuki hopped back, deeper into the darkness.

Jenny beckoned.

“Come here, Biscuit.”

Yuki didn’t budge.

“What’s up with you?”

Yuki heard the lilting of a question. She could guess what it was. No way Yuki was getting close.

Jenny called Yuki over a few times, but when the rabbit refused to approach, she gave up. She went to the cage, took the water bowl, the nibbled carrot, and placed them under the bed. Afterwards, she got up and went to the wardrobe.

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Yuki’s fear softened a tad. Was she overthinking stuff again? The mystery room had no window and was dark, illuminated only by the flickering candlelight. She might have seen things that weren’t there. Rabbit eyes weren’t the same as humans. It was difficult to explain the difference. Jenny wasn’t acting any differently from her usual behavior. Granted, Yuki hadn’t known her for more than a few weeks, but she seemed normal now, not like whatever that inside the room was.

The rabbit sighed and looked at the carrot and water again. Her ears tingled, remembering the divine fingers tempting her to stay.

No, it was time to leave.

Jenny finished whatever she was doing in the wardrobe and walked closer to the bed. She placed something on top of it before moving to the room’s exit. Midway there, she stopped and looked under the bed again. Satisfied, she got to the door, opened it quickly, then left, closing it behind.

Yuki watched all this from her corner, her mind churning with possibilities.

Escaping during the day would be a problem. Best to wait until it was nighttime. Too risky to cross the manor corridors while everyone was still awake and about.

Yuki had a plan, a good plan this time.

She crept closer to the bowl, drank water, ate the carrot. With a quick jaunt to the cage, she pooped and took a leak. Yuki would never agree she was a domesticated bunny, but she had standards. No need to pee the entire room when she had a place reserved just for that.

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Jenny returned before long, but she soon left again. When she came back, about an hour later, she smelled of soap and flowers. Yuki snuck closer to observe the witch. She watched Jenny while she undressed from her uniform and underthings.

In fascination, Yuki gawked at the dressing ritual: Jenny started with white bloomers and a chemise, followed by a light blue corset. Jenny tied the hoopskirt over the bloomers and, finally, the petticoat to finish the ensemble.

Jenny fixed her hair, applied makeup, and put on sandals in the same light blue color as the corset. She double-checked everything and smiled, satisfied. She retrieved a pouch, checked her reflection, then departed.

Yuki wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t enjoy watching the whole thing. First, because Jenny was gorgeous, the uniform didn’t do her justice, and second, the dressing ritual fascinated her. If she wasn’t mistaken, that was straight from the Victorian era.

That also raised a lot more questions Yuki hadn’t considered before.

Who was Jenny? Yuki thought she was just another servant girl, but things weren’t adding up. A servant didn’t have a whole noble bedroom to themselves, even one as bare and rough as this; and a servant didn’t wear noble dresses.

Yuki shook her head. She was getting distracted again. Now wasn’t the time; she needed to wait until the manor slept, then she could escape.

An image of a medieval house, drawn in comic style, with z’s floating over it and a drool bubble leaving one door, sent Yuki snorting in laughter. Outside, the sky was already dark. Yuki planned to escape as soon as Jenny slept.

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Jenny never returned.

Hours passed, the manor fell silent, and Jenny was nowhere in sight.

Yuki had a bad feeling about this, though she wasn’t sure why.

Not jealousy, far from it. It was like an unpleasant smell, sweet and nauseating. Yuki felt worse than that one time when the teacher made her stand in front of the entire class to present homework she hadn’t done.

Yuki paced around, unable to settle down. She shook her head.

It was time to leave. The more she waited, the worse it would be.

With small and quick hops, Yuki left her hiding place. Without further delay, she ran to a corner and picked up one of Jenny’s hairs.

Material component secured, she chanted the spell, low and steady. She moved her paws in the mystic gestures.

When the time was right, she changed the spell to increase the duration. Even with the shaping, it wasn’t much. Less than an hour. It would be enough. Yuki devised this plan after seeing the hair on the ground when fleeing the mystery room.

With one last magic chant, she cast [Shapechange].

The world blurred, distorted. Yuki’s bones creaked and popped.

Her flesh squirmed like worms under her skin, and her body writhed and warped. The fur receded, and her eyes moved from the side of her head to the front. Her arms elongated, and her legs popped and twisted.

When it was over, Yuki gasped for breath, face on the floor. She blinked and shivered; it was freezing. She sat up and looked at her hands. They were small and delicate. She pulled a strand of hair in front of her eyes. It was milky white, almost transparent.

She looked around; everything was still too big. She got up, wobbly legs barely enough to support her. It had been so long since she’d walked on two legs. She forgot how to.

When she finally stood, Yuki compared her height with the bed. She looked at her hands again, flexed her new fingers.

“At least, I have opposable thumbs now,” she said in a high-pitched, childish voice. “So what if I look like a toddler?”